Lucy gets warped to a different place and time in the Fallen London universe
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She transports everything back to the Workworlders' rock and goes to find that one guy to ask about Wit & Vinegar passphrases. 

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"Oh- Right. Of course. They've gotten more careful. I should come with you and make introductions, they know me." Sigh. "So much to do here though."

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"How much can we get for the equipment? Is it even worth it when I can just make and sell Hours."

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"Honestly? Probably not."

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"Is there any equipment I should be buying, for that matter."

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"We'll probably have a wish-list in a day or two but right now we're trying to light up all the caves your - thing - made, and build sawmills and farming equipment and stuff. Oh, and it ran into an underground vein of coal and iron ore a few hours ago. Right convenient, that. Anyway, Locomotives are the only thing that springs to mind. Maybe not Dreadnoughts because they're distinctive and if you steal any for us, seems liable to get us even more hatred from the Establishment. We can't let you be our only link to the world in the long run."

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"Where do I buy those? Or parts to make those." 

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"There's big engine yards in London. Cheap, used engines can go for as little as five hundred Sovereigns. Or you could steal them from criminals. Nobody likes the grave-robbers much, and we can modify the engines enough not to be recognized as grave-robber engines with the stuff we have here."

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"Disabling grave-robbers sounds good. How do I recognize grave-robber trains?"

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He sketches a double-chimney engine that looks sort of Marauder-ish, if not nearly as ramshackle as the pirates from the Reach were.

"See those hooks at the front? That's what they use to dig graves and crack coffins. They'll usually not have running lights on. The Most Serene Masoleum is further south than the Workworlds."

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"The what now?"

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"-The giant memorial cemetery the Empress built for her dead husband. Above the dead sun. There are... Tens, maybe hundreds of thousands of dead there, and millions in all the graveyards around it probably..." His expression changes in realization, a mixture of anxiety and wonder.

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"Her dead--why did she leave the Neath if--wow, okay. Well. That sounds like an excellent place for me to go." 

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"-Don't leave us in the lurch. Please."

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"--I'm not planning to! I wasn't going to go right now or anything anyway, I don't want all those people waking up in their tombs, and I wouldn't have to be there for very long." 

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"Okay, sorry, but do you see how that's a little - alarming - Lots of people want to help the poor as long as it makes them feel good, until something more interesting comes along, it's why I want us independent of you-"

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"Yeah, and that is super valid. I do have a sense of responsibility, though, I'm not going to fuck off and start looking for other wrongs to right until you are, although I'll probably make day trips, like for example I owe some people some bronzewood--anyway, people continuing to be dead is a more shelf-stable situation than, uh, this." 

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"Alright. Yeah. And until we have some kind of actual election I'm only sort of in charge, but I'm doubtful we can stay here indefinitely without implicitly relying on you to come be angry if a thousand soldiers show up and start rounding people up. Or if the Throne of Hours reaches out to slow or speed us, as hostages. I want to send someone to the Royal Society to ask about defenses to that- But anyway. Personally I'm hoping 'we'll keep making stuff but on our terms, with unions involved' is acceptable by being less economically devastating than losing all their cheapest manufacturing capacity overnight. We're probably ready for another workworld by the way. I've been making people keep areas clear for more, uh, streets."

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Nod. "Having lots of Hours should help with the speeding/slowing thing, I think? And it's not necessarily a strict divide between 'relying on me for almost everything' and 'I can forget you exist and it'll be fine,' like, for now I don't want to do more than day trips out but there could be a point where I check in once a week or something." 

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"I'm thinking something like an enormous Hour-Loom, yeah. To at least make it expensive to screw with us. I don't know the theory or if that's really feasible. I know it's very expensive to run the Throne, they went on about it all the time. The fruits of your labor sustain the good order of time throughout the Empire! We'll be like the bloody Colonies. Too expensive to bother with."

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"Sounds like a plan. Do you know what's up with the Throne?"

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"Beyond that it's - well, the throne, and not just the actual chair but entire factories' worth of specialized machinery below it and Correspondence as well - not really. It influences time, with a titanic range and imprecise effect."

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"That seems like a bad idea, but what else do I expect from a woman who sold her city for her husband's life and then left the Neath and let him die." 

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"Worse idea than letting Wefts proliferate? You can fall in one and come out before you started, or as someone who made different choices. Now, they're only much of a thing near Skyhenge." He sighs. "But I don't know Her Eternal Majesty's troubles or reasons."

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"I mean, Time gets along fine without any particular regulation most places."

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